by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-11-23

Recent Essays (All Topics)

•Hebrew as a secret language

•Questioning M.J.Rosenberg on claim that total BDS seeks to destroy Israel

•Mitchell Plitnick defines away the Palestinian Right of Return

•Taking Peter Beinart's lead: Jews calling for full-court BDS against Israel

•Israel, we know an artisan by his works.

•Gunter Grass's poem "What must be said"

•A story about how morally dangerous Israel is for Jewish kids

•Benny Morris shows that Ben Gurion ordered expulsion in 1948.

•Ben Gurion's thoughts about removal of Arabs from Israel

•The three Jewish religions regarding Israel

Many countries purchase arms from USA and Israel; indeed arms manufactures are among the largest and most profitable exports of those countries. And armaments are so costly and important to national defense that buyers naturally do their very best to determine whether (and in what circumstances) these arms would cease to work.

But, as Stuxnet makes clear, anything that involves a major and controlling software component is subject to contamination by “malware” either inserted (early) by the manufacturer or (later) by someone else.

What “malware” might infect and effectively disable major armaments?

Well, as to airplanes and guided missiles, there is usually software which examines electronic incoming signals of various sorts for target identification, targeting, aiming, following, and decision-to-fire.

Take as an example a military aircraft manufactured in the USA and sold to (say) Turkey. This aircraft has an “IFF” system (“identify friend or foe”) to examine incoming radio signals sent from another aircraft to decide whether that aircraft should be made a target (for missile or cannon fire). Suppose that the IFF-software has been modified (or the software in the decoder of the radio receiver has been modified) to tell the aircraft that an Israeli aircraft is really Turkish. This could happen if Israeli software experts learned the Turkish identification signals. Now as long as Israel and Turkey are not at war, all well and good. Otherwise, surprise!

Now, it seems likely that the re-programming of the “IFF” system would be job-1 upon taking delivery of a new aircraft. And that changing a country’s own “IFF” codes would occur as often as computer users change their passwords. However, if the Stuxnet model is a guide, such changing will be ineffective if “hackers” are able to replace reliable software with malware.

Do I know any of this to be a real problem? Of course not. How could I? Do you know that it is not? How could you?

Would all those aircraft the Saudis bought from the USA work in the event of a war with Israel? Won’t know until you try.

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